12 Valve 2nd Gen Dodge Cummins 94-98 Discussion of 12 Valve 5.9 Liter Dodge Cummins Diesels with P7100 Injection Pumps

death wobble like a mother on new suspension HELP!!!!!

Old Aug 17, 2010 | 09:37 PM
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Default death wobble like a mother on new suspension HELP!!!!!

ok guys well tonight i finished up my front suspension project on my chevy and i installed a similar steering to the 94 and up dodge rams. it has front coils from a 98 ram 2500 4x4. all the arms and brackets and whatnot are home made and i measured 100 times while building. everything is very stout and solid, but at about 15mph, i get death wobble so bad i nearly go off the road. my toe is set at 1/8" inward, and my caster is equal at negative 5 degrees on each side. trac bar is just a piece of dom tubing with leaf spring bushings on each end (id assume thatd be fine?). and the control arms are bushings on one end and ballistic joints on the other. i have no idea what is wrong. anyone have any ideas?

edit: 35 inch tires, at 45 psi, with hydraulic assist. and it never even slightly did it before with the leaf springs
 

Last edited by tltruckparts; Aug 17, 2010 at 09:42 PM.
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Old Aug 17, 2010 | 10:08 PM
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man i dont know what to tell you but one thing you have to much negative caster
 
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Old Aug 17, 2010 | 10:11 PM
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what kinda tires you got, my truck death wobbled like a mother too so I replaced all the ball joints, tie rods, and the track bar and it still did it, at the time I was running 35" BFG TA's that had about a 1/4 tread on them, I bought new tires and it hasnt tried to shake once no matter how fast I drive or how many bumps I bounce over.
 
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Old Aug 17, 2010 | 10:26 PM
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Scan through the thread listed in my signature. It has a list of all known problems reported to cause these problems.
 
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Old Aug 17, 2010 | 10:46 PM
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Originally Posted by 12vcummins96
man i dont know what to tell you but one thing you have to much negative caster
i had negative 8 on the leaf springs with no problems and with 35's ive ALWAYS ran negative 6 degrees and never had a problem until now

Originally Posted by 95cumminsguy
what kinda tires you got, my truck death wobbled like a mother too so I replaced all the ball joints, tie rods, and the track bar and it still did it, at the time I was running 35" BFG TA's that had about a 1/4 tread on them, I bought new tires and it hasnt tried to shake once no matter how fast I drive or how many bumps I bounce over.
newer bfg mud terrains. they are balanced correctly. like i said, 1 week ago with leaf springs i had zero wobbles, so i know its suspension related not the tires the tires never even came off the axle

Originally Posted by Uncle Bubba
Scan through the thread listed in my signature. It has a list of all known problems reported to cause these problems.
i looked through all that and all of that is new thats why i dont get it. i have all BRAND NEW links and bushings on every aspect of the suspension. only thing i can think of is i know i didnt get the track bar bolts completely tight because the nuts were kinda jacked up. thats the only thing i can think of
 
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Old Aug 17, 2010 | 11:36 PM
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Biggest cause of this is:

Ball Joints, Trac Bar, Steering Box ect.
 
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Old Aug 17, 2010 | 11:39 PM
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ball joints are brand new trac bar is brand new steering box is brand new. like i said the only thing different in the truck is the suspensions all the steering and everything is the same exact as it was a week ago and none of these problems exist.

well im reading more about the caster. i think i had 5 degrees positive caster not negative caster. the 5 degrees tilts towards the back of the truck.
 
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Old Aug 18, 2010 | 12:03 AM
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negative is better than positive i did 3 on mine
 
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Old Aug 18, 2010 | 06:53 AM
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your trac bar bushing have to be a bit more solid then just spring bushings... any play in the bushing will cause you to have wobble... if the bolts are loose this will cause wobble... and then if your caster is positive you will get wobble...

Fix these and if you still have wobble change the tires from the back to the front and see if you do still have wobble... a friend of mine had a cheby surburban that had a bent rim that caused him to have the wobble really bad as well...
 
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Old Aug 18, 2010 | 08:05 AM
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ill tighten those bolts up when i get off work tonight and go from there. what is a good caster angle to go at?
 
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